Partnership in the Gospel
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Philippians 1:1-18a
Bringing out the best in you
Who brings out the best in you? Is there someone you know, who… seems to call out your best qualities… someone you enjoy being with…and when this person is with you…you’re just a better version of yourself? Do you know someone like that? Raise your hand if you can think of someone who is like that for you.
Honestly…I consider myself very blessed, because when my mother was alive – she was that person for me. She always could see the best in me, even though she knew ALL my warts and weaknesses. In fact, I’m doubly blessed, because the woman I married, the mother of our two boys is exactly that for our boys – and honestly she brings out the best in me too.
Hapy Mother’s Day! The truth is, I may be in the minority to think as wonderfully about Moms as I do.
Some of you can relate…but for many, Mother’s Day is a painful reminder of who is NOT there. Like me, some of us lost our mother years ago or we struggle today as changes are happening in her health, like dementia or Alzheimer’s. If that’s you, you can still love and treasure her – but you also know what it means to say 1,000 small goodbyes.
Not everyone has good memories of their mom. And today, there are some who have dreamed of being a mom, but it hasn’t happened.
I just want to acknowledge that this is a complicated day. If Mother’s Day is hard for you, I see you. Every emotion is real today and appropriate. We can celebrate. We can grieve. We can struggle.
I also want you to say today, that no matter what you’re feeling - you are not alone. God is with you today…and God has given you a community of faith to walk with.
Not Alone/Partnership in the Gospel
God has designed humans, such that none of us are an island. You and I are designed to be in relationships, to collaborate, to strengthen each other – with affirmation and guidance. We need each other.
The apostle Paul wrote about the importance of partnership in today’s reading from Philippians. Some call Philippians, the most joyful letter in the entire New Testament! Why is Paul so happy? This is a thank you letter to all the believers in Philippi, thanking them for accepting him as part of their community. A “community in grace” he calls it. I like to say they were “partners in the Gospel”.
The Philippians took the risk of supporting Paul, from the very beginning when he first became a follower of Christ. You remember, he was persecuting Christians just before he was converted – having Christians arrested, beaten, killed, and thrown in jail. But the Philippians supported him – even when he was a stranger with a violent past.
Perhaps that can be an inspiration for us today – right there. Who does the Gospel unite us with today? Does it include someone from a different social class, someone in a different political party, someone with different ethnic or cultural background, somebody in prison, someone who is casting out demons in Jesus’ name – like we see referenced in the Gospel reading from Luke today? What do your partners in the Gospel look like?
Even the first disciples complained to Jesus about “those people,” a man who was acting differently but claiming to be a follower of Jesus. Those first disciples said, what should we do about him? And Jesus’ response surprised them. “Do not stop him, for whoever is not against you is for you,” Jesus said.
In Philippians Paul says something very similar. Paul is chained in prison, and some people are spreading the news about Jesus – hoping that the authorities will get more upset and take it out on Paul by torturing or even killing him in prison. But they’re spreading the news about Jesus in order to get everybody upset. Paul gets it. He says, even if this results in my suffering and dying - even then, he insists, with joy, that what matters is that “Christ is proclaimed in every way, whether out of false motives or true…”.
Partnership in the Gospel includes a variety of people! Including many people who you and I may not understand, or who may look very different from you! Who does the Gospel unite us with today…and how can partnership in the Gospel – with very diverse people - strengthen God’s work in this world?
You and I have colleagues in El Salvador. Some don’t speak English, and some of us don’t speak Spanish. We live in different countries, and we are rich compared to what these partners in the Gospel have to live on. But, I remember sitting with the national Lutheran Bishop in El Salvador a few years ago. Bishop Gomez said to me, we are a church of the poor. He brought me to his church and showed me a big white cross with words written all over it. And he told me the story of this cross.
It happened during the time of Civil War in El Salvador (1979-1992). This Lutheran bishop had taken a simple wooden cross, painted it white, and put in the front of the sanctuary. Then he asked the people to come forward and use black sharpies to write words on the cross.
First write the "sins" of the nation – lay them at Jesus’ feet. The people came. They wrote: persecution of the church, hunger, discrimination against women, ambition for power, murder and violence.
Bishop Gomez kept encouraging them to write more…not just the sins, but also write down your commitment to work toward forgiveness and liberation.
People also added words of hope and love, giving testimony to the transforming power of God.
What happened next was shocking. During this worship service the government authorities burst into the church, blazing their guns to arrest Bishop Gomez. But someone had gotten word to the bishop in time for him to escape and all the worshippers to leave. So, as the soldiers burst in, the church was empty. But the cross with all these words on it, was there. The soldiers thought the cross itself was subversive, so they took it. They seized it. They arrested the cross! They held it in the police station at first, but ultimately it was stored in the house of the President of El Salvador – announcing the sins of the nation to the President…and announcing the power of forgiveness and liberation in Christ! Oh the power of the Holy Spirit at work through the faithfulness of God’s people.
Bishop Gomez had fled the country entirely. But two months later, he came back…accompanied by partners in the Gospel…by American pastors and American church members – like you – and he safely re-entered El Salvador. At that time he asked the government, if he could have the cross back. It was returned from the President’s house. In my short time with Bishop Gomez, he very emotionally, showed me where it stands today in that congregation again – as an inspiration. It still points out sins and still calls people to partner in the gospel to liberate people from oppression and inequity by the power of the Holy Spirit and the love of Christ.
Do you believe God can overcome hate and the oppression of the poor in this world? Look to your partners in the Gospel in El Salvador...and believe! Praise God for their inspiration! Sometimes the list of sins (like the ones written on that cross)…sometimes it’s easier to notice sin and inequity in somebody else’s culture. That’s another blessing of partnership in the Gospel. Perhaps their faith may awaken you and me to see the bias in our own culture, and our own hearts.
Here at Vista, we are able and invited to partnerships in the Gospel. But it may involve risk. You partner already with a group of believers from Kenya who are 7th-Day Adventists and meet here every Saturday. You have Christians from Mexico who clean this building every week. We have people who love Jesus and are fighting the sickness of alcoholism and other addictions – yet they come here every week to AA and NA meetings in this church. Your partnership in the Gospel may include people experiencing homelessness in this neighborhood. Your partnership in the Gospel includes people showing mercy and compassion in public schools – as teachers, school counselors, and administrators. How will Jesus inspire us through these partners in the Gospel? And how is Jesus calling us through these partners to stand up and name sin, and commit ourselves to participate in changing systems that foster sins of injustice and oppression? How will our partnerships in the Gospel help us proclaim hope?
Jesus’ love is liberating and the partnerships we share in the Gospel are meant to encourage and to transform this world!
Other Voices & Other Gospels
Now, I must notice one last thing. In today’s reading, Paul is all about the message of Christ being proclaimed, and he is not concerned about the messengers – as long as the message of Christ gets out.
But let’s be clear. Paul isn’t saying that every message using the name of Jesus is okay. No, in fact, he says in Galatians:
“…there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed!” (Galatians 1:7-8)
Wow, those are strong words. But Paul is clearly saying, we must still discern “other gospels”. This is as important today as it has ever been, because there are so many who preach “another gospel”. The most common false gospels today are misleading theologies built on fear, supremacy, and prosperity.
We are called to differentiate the love of Christ from fear, supremacy, and seeking prosperity
Anyone can say, “Do it for Jesus,” but in the 1920’s, for example, it was Adolf Hitler who invoked Jesus’ name to portray Jesus as an Aryan fighter against Jews (proclaiming supremacy AND fear). Partnership with Hitler was NOT a partnership in the Gospel. That is another gospel – designed to get support from Christians for unspeakable violence and genocide. But it is easiest to see that looking back.
We need partnership in the Gospel today, with diverse people. This will enrich our insight on how God is at work. This will help us more powerfully reflect the love of God in Christ. But we must discern “other gospels” by listening for people who preach fear, supremacy, and prosperity.
It was Paul’s prayer at the end of today’s reading that the Philippians continue to grow in the Holy Spirit, and that their maturity in faith would overflow and help them discern what is best. It is my prayer for us here, that the love Jesus places in your hearts may overflow more and more so that we may grow in discerning false teaching, and be enriched by deep and diverse partnerships in the Gospel of Jesus.
Pastor Doug Cox